Work vehicles such as tractors, skid steers, four wheelers and bulldozers are often equipped with many types of attachments. Loaders are often attached to the front of such equipment with arms and hydraulic controls that allow the loader to be raised and lowered, and also rolled forward and backward. Many different implements can be attached to the front of these work vehicles allowing the operator to accomplish various tasks via a single work vehicle.
Conventional front-end loaders have a pair of lifting arms or boom assemblies that have rearward ends that pivotally attach to a tractor, and forward ends that pivotally attach to an implement. A coupler is often used to connect various implements to the lifting arms. This allows the owner of a work vehicle to change the implement attached to the work vehicle in order to address the needs of a particular job. Exemplary implements found on conventional front-end loaders include buckets, clam shells, plows, fork lifts, bale spears, etc.
Generally the arms of the loader and the attached implement are controlled by a hydraulic system. Hydraulic cylinders are provided for operating front-end loaders and their attached implements. Hydraulic lines can be found extending along the exterior (or routed along the interior) of the front-end loaders for powering the hydraulic cylinders. In addition, when attaching front-end loaders to a tractor, it is often necessary to separately and manually connect the hydraulic lines on the front-end loader to the hydraulic lines on the tractor.
The current hydraulic systems used to attach the various implements to loaders suffer from a number of drawbacks. Typically, a third function hydraulic or electric valve is required to power hydraulic couplers. Additionally, multiple hydraulic lines, components and couplings are required to perform additional functions, thereby increasing costs. Furthermore, these additional hydraulic lines must be coupled each time a loader is attached to the work vehicle.
A drawback of hydraulic systems that use diverter valves is that only a single function may be completed at a time. An improved system that allows multiple cylinders to be used and activated simultaneously is needed.
Yet another drawback of the current hydraulic systems is that the vehicle must be powered on so that the pump can provide pressurized fluid to perform a secondary function. It is desirable to be able to perform a secondary function without necessarily turning the vehicle on and going to the pump.
A primary object of the present invention is to overcome one or more of the disadvantages of the prior art hydraulic systems for work vehicles. The present invention allows secondary functions or operations to be completed while the primary use of the loader is uninterrupted. This provides the benefit of a more responsive system, since there is no time lapse while one system is waiting on the other.
Another feature of the present invention is that it provides economic savings by reducing the number of hydraulic lines, components and couplings required. The present invention also eliminates the need for a third function hydraulic or electric valve.
Yet another feature of the present invention is that it does not require an additional set of two hydraulic lines to be coupled each time a quick-mount loader is attached. Furthermore, this results in a more cost efficient system because additional lines back to the pump are no longer required.
An additional feature of the present invention is that the single acting cylinder can be activated without going to the pump or turning the tractor on, as long as the loader is off the ground or the lift cylinder is under pressure. Here the power comes from the weight of the loader and the things attached to it.
Previous systems for remotely decoupling implements to loader arms have suffered from safety problems in that the implement could be accidently decoupled when in a dangerous position. In an embodiment of the present invention, a dual acting cylinder is utilized instead of the single acting cylinder and the pressurized fluid used to raise the loader arms is directed to a secondary coupling cylinder. In this configuration, the secondary coupling cylinder is extended whenever the main cylinder is pressurized, keeping an implement locked to the loader arms. To unlock the implement, a one-way valve directs fluid to the opposite chamber of the secondary coupling cylinder to retract the secondary coupling cylinder. The secondary coupling cylinder, however, will only retract if the master cylinder is not under pressure. This provides a significant safety benefit because an implement may not be unlocked when in an elevated position.
In remotely coupling an implement to a loader, it may be difficult for an operator to accurately determine if the connection cylinder is properly secured to the implement. In the present invention, the coupler pin may be connected to a flag that moves with the coupler pin. The flag may include a horizontal rod that has been painted to assist the loader operator determine that the coupler pin is secured.